Top 5 Android Tower Defence Games

Best ways to hold off the hoards on Android

The tower defence genre is one of the most popular and well-established genres on mobile, and it's easy to see why.

This off-shoot of the real time strategy genre feels perfectly at home with touchscreen controls, and its (generally) fixed, zoomed-out perspective is great for smaller screens. Yet the tower defence genre also allows for plenty of gameplay depth and a stiff challenge.

It's also moved on quite a lot from the early days of the Google Play Store, which is why we've come up with a bang up to date top 5 Android tower defence games list.

Like Fieldrunners, the first Kingdom Rush took mobile tower defence to a new level when it arrived on Android - this time with a tongue-in-cheek fantasy twist. Kingdom Rush Frontiers is more of a refinement than a full-on advancement, but it provides all-new towers, even more enemies on screen, and another beautifully detailed cartoon-fantasy world go to war in.

Some would have it that the first Plants vs Zombies is the purer game of the two, and it's certainly true that Plants vs. Zombies 2's freemium set-up won't be for everyone. But it looks great, it takes the lane-based tower defence action to new times and places, and it offers a lot of content for free.

Castle Doombad is the only side-viewed tower defence game on this list, and it also puts you in the shoes of an arch villain. It's up to you to set a number of ingenious traps to protect your castle from invading heroes.

Sentinel 4 is for hardcore tower defence players - those who have mastered all of the above with relative ease and who now hunger for something meatier and more involved. It's tricky to get into, but Sentinel 4 is packed full of multilayered systems for those prepared to dive in.

The first Fieldrunners really set the template for the tower defence genre on Android, and this long-gestating sequel is a significant step forward. It's bigger, better looking, and much more varied, with open and locked-path levels both making a showing alongside the usual beautifully balanced tower-placing action.